The Light After Dawn
by Dark-Plague2863
Summary: A young man comes to stay at the Hinata Sou after troubles at home. How will the tennants react to his presence? And will he be able to turn around his past? First Fan Fic! Please Read Review! Chapter II in.
1. The Path Is Lain

Hey there everypeoplz. First off, this is the beginning of my first fan fiction, so if you have any criticism, PLEASE drop it off in the comments, I need to know how I'm doing at this first chapter.

Thanks to Bluezone and everyone else for convincing me that I don't suck that bad! lol. :P

Disclaimer: All of the characters and places associated with Love Hina belong to Ken Akamatsu. But Sazuke is mine, so take him without asking and I'll bomb your freakin house.

So without further delay…

The Light After Dawn; Chapter 1. The Path Is Lain.

_He approached the target building. It was just a normal apartment, two stories tall. His one objective was to retrieve what was inside. As he entered, he was stopped by two large men wielding shotguns. He looked around the room, it appeared to be some king of gambling house, there were pool tables, and a bar. People were playing poker, drinking, and shooting up. After the two men asked him a few questions, they led him upstairs to a back room. It was much darker upstairs, and it made him feel uncomfortable. When he entered the back room, the two men did not follow. When he entered the room, he again looked around. A small office-like room. There was only one man inside, sitting in his large chair behind his desk, and he looked angry. He was yelled at by the man, questioned, yelled at, then questioned again. The man suddenly pulled a gun on him, and all he could do was run. He opened the door and ran out, past the two men before they could realize what was happening. He ran down the hall as fast as his legs would carry him, and heard multiple gunshots fired. But he felt nothing, he just kept running. He escaped the building, but still he kept running, running, running until he could find safety at home. At least, more safety than there was for him here. _

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(An view of Hinata Springs is seen high above the ground)

This day started no differently than any other day in Hinata, Japan. The sun rose in the eastern sky… you could hear the sounds of a town awakening… you could hear the sounds of many birds chirping… you cou-

"YOU PERVERT!"

(scene shifts to the Hinata Sou, where we see Keitarou in another hopeless situation)

"No! Naru! It was an accident I swe-", A loud crack could be heard from miles away, as a projectile flew from the old inn's roof, into the distance.

"Humph, you'd think he would have learned after all these years…", sighed Naru as she entered her room and continued to get ready for the day ahead.

A few miles away, Keitarou finally landed somewhere near the train station. He and Naru had been married for well over 3 years now, yet for some reason, these occurrences were still considered commonplace in the Hinata Sou.

'Well, looks like its gonna be another one of those days…' he thought as he chuckled and pulled his bruised body up from the ground. Little did he know this day would be quite different than the one he had pictured at that moment.

… Some time earlier on the outskirts of Yokohama…

A young boy, about 5' 11" with short brown hair, and by his looks no older than 19 or 20, can be seen walking down the street remembering the confrontation that had occurred in his own home with his father just a few hours earlier…

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_"WHERE WERE YOU! YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" the boy's father shouts._

"_I TOLD YOU TO BE BACK HERE WITH MY DRUGS OVER AN HOUR AGO! WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY?"_

"_I ran into some difficulties, your supplier pulled a gun on-"_

"_DON'T GIVE ME EXCUSES GOD DAMNIT!" After making the final remark, he smacks the boy upside the head. The boy however doesn't even flinch. "IF YOU CAN'T GO BACK THERE RIGHT NOW AND GET ME WHAT I NEED, THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!"_

"…"

"_WELL?"_

"…_fine…"_

"_WHAT WAS THAT?"_

"_I SAID FINE!" As he says that, he land three punches to the older man, the first two to his torso, and the third to his head, knocking him to the ground out cold."_

'_I'm going to get as far away from this hellhole as possible…for good. I should've done this a long time ago…' the boy thought. He then packed up what few possessions he held dear in his "home", along with some essentials, and left without another word._

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He stops and cringes momentarily after the series of images runs through his head again, but then continues on his way. He had been traveling like this for what to him seemed like an eternity (even though its only been about three hours), and had no intention of stopping in the near future. He had no idea how far he had traveled, or what city he was in, but he didn't care. He was just tired of the bull he had put up with for the 19 years of what he wish he didn't have to claim as his life, and he had finally gotten away from it.

It was starting to get dark, and even though for a while he had tried to ignore the nagging feeling, he was beginning to grow tired. He decided it was time to try to find a place to stay, so he began to scan the area for places he might be able to sleep for a few hours before continuing on his way. While looking around, it became obvious to him is was in a pretty small town. There were very few shops or establishments throughout the entire city. He felt his stomach begin to growl, and decided to enter a small café on the edge of town.

"Kitsune's Tea Shop, how may I help you?" A short woman with closed eyes and short blondish hair asked him as he walked up to the counter. "I'll just have a bagel, thank you." The boy replied.

"Just a bagel, you sure Hun?"

"Yes, just a bagel will do."

"Alright then, you want any cream cheese to put on it at least?"  
"Does it cost extra? I'm on a low budget."

Kitsune looks around quickly before pulling out a packet and tossing it to him, "It's on the house, you look like you've had enough of a hard time today as it is."

"Haha… you could say that…", he said as the mood of the entire café could be felt darken. He took his bagel and walked towards a table to eat his small dinner.

Kitsune continued cleaning the cups that were on the counter in front of her, but she had lost her concentration. She knows when she recognizes someone, that she's seen them before. She recognized the boy, but couldn't pin just where it had been. And then it hit her, the bar! She'd seen him frequently enter and leave the bar, but never once go to the counter or have a drink. He'd just walk upstairs with the two bouncers, and then leave just as quietly. Her curiosity had been peaked, and she was going to find out who he was.

"Megumi! Take over for a while would ya?" She asked the woman next to her. She put down the dishes and walked over to the table the boy was sitting at.

She took a seat across from him, and sat there for about 20 seconds before the boy looked up from his "meal".

"Can I help you miss?" He asked.

"I'll keep it sweet and simple, "Kitsune replied, before continuing, "I've seen you at the bar down by Yokohama tons, you come in all the time, but never drink anything. Who are you and why are you always there?"

The boy slumped in his seat and took a deep sigh before replying, "My names Sazuke Minashiro, and why I was there… I'd rather not discuss… Let's just say, you'll never be seeing me down there again."

Kitsune was clearly disappointed by Sazuke's lack of an answer to her second question, but by running Haruka's teashop, she had learned not to push it over the last few years.

"Alright, I won't ask why you were there, but why are you out here?"

Again, the Sazuke's mood darkened, "Just getting away from my past, trying to start over. Once I'm out of here I'm gonna go look for a place to stay for the night before I can keep moving along tomorrow."

At hearing this, Kitsune perked up a bit, "You know, a friend of mine owns a hotel of sorts up on the hill a bit north of here, you could stay there if you want."

Sazuke sat there and thought for a while. He seemed satisfied with this invitation, and replied, "Thank you! I'll look into it!"

"No problem, and its 500 En for the bagel."

"Oh, yah, here you go." He said as he took out the coin from his pocket and flipped it to Kitsune, who swiftly caught it with two fingers.

"Thank you for your patronage, have a good evening." Kitsune said to Sazuke as he left the café. 'Something's wrong with this guy, hope I didn't make any trouble for Keitarou and all them. Ah, whatever, if he's a crook Motoko will just kick his ass. No reason to worry…' She pondered as she went back to cleaning the dishes.

He left and started to walk down the street. He had no intentions of accepting the café owner's invitation. He had to go farther, he just had to. He continued to walk for another hour before he heard a shriek coming from a dark alleyway just to his left. He was horrified, his mind flashed back to his many past experiences, and he couldn't move. He heard another shriek and this time, his body just flew into the alleyway. What he finds a few steps in, just matches his earlier thoughts, and enrages him even more. A young blue-haired girl, about his own age by his estimate, was pinned to the wall by a much larger man, probably in his mid 30's, and was screaming for help seemingly to no avail. It took another 10 seconds or so for the thug to finally realize that he wasn't alone, and turned to face the boy now standing there with an angry look in his eyes, a small bag hanging over his shoulder.

"Get lost kid!" The man shouted at him, "Stay out of other people's business, unless you wanna die too!"

Sazuke was enraged. He dropped his bag, and his hands went into his coat, before simply saying to the man, "Bring it…"

At this, the thug dropped the young girl to the ground, and began to charge his new target, however, quicker then he could react, Sazuke pulled out two identical black tantos from under his coat, and made a quick X like slash on the mans abdomen. . After the thug recoiled from then new pain he was experiencing, Sazuke jumped in the air and delivered a hard drop kick on the top of his head. The thug fell to the ground unconscious quicker than a fat man strapped to a meteor. After he placed his tantos back in his coat and brushed himself off, he walked over to the girl and helped her up.

"You alright there Miss?"

She was obviously traumatized, but came over this and bowed multiple times to Sazuke while sobbing, "Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much! If you wouldn't have come, I don't know what might have happened!" She managed to squeal with tears in her eyes.

"It was no problem, really." Sazuke said as if nothing had happened. "Here's your bag, try to be more careful at dusk, alright Miss?" He said as he picked up his own small bag and started to walk out of the alley.

The girl chased after him, "W-wait! Are you looking for somewhere to stay? I noticed your bag!" she asked anxiously. After watching Sazuke reply with a simple nod of the head while he continued to walk, she continued, "My friend owns a inn up on a hill here in town, you could stay there if you'd like!"

To this, the boy stopped cold. The same inn? This guy must be pretty popular around here. He remembered not wanting to go before, but it was much later, and he was now extremely tired from both his day and the confrontation in the alley. He decided he might as well and replied, "Really? You think he'd let me? I would be grateful."

"Sure! He'll let you stay! Just come with me!" She said as she started to skip happily down the street, already seeming to have forgotten about the incident in the alley. Sazuke just sighed to himself and followed her.

While walking through town, they passed the café he had been in earlier. Sazuke thought that the girl here and the owner of the café might know each other, so he asked,

"Say, do you know who owns that café over there? I went there earlier and talked with her for a bit, she mentioned the same inn you're bringing me too."

Shinobu looked a little excited at this, "Oh! Mitsune! Konno Mitsune! She's been running that place for three years! She moved in there after the last owner left. She used to live up with us in the same Inn. How's she doing?"

"By the look of the place, pretty well, it's a first class establishment if ya ask me."

"Well, here we are!" She stated, and looked to Sazuke who quickly jumped and said,

"That's a lot of stairs… We goin all the way up there? You must get quite a workout living here…"

"Yup! All the way up!" And with that they started their climb up the longest flight of stairs he had ever seen. The girl waved her hand in front of him about halfway up to get his attention, then asked, "I never even got your name, it'd be nice to know the name of the person who's gonna be staying here."

"Oh yah…" he said, slightly embarrassed he had forgotten something so trivial. "My names Sazuke, Sazuke Minashiro. And yours?"

"I'm Shinobu! Shinobu Maehara! Nice to meet you!" she said as she bowed slightly before saying, "Alright! Up we go!"

Sazuke continued following Shinobu up the stairs, and when they reached the top, he had to brace himself from painfully falling back down them again. "HOLY SHIT! THAT'S THE BIGGEST BUILDING I'VE EVER SEEN! Are you sure this is an inn!"

"Yup yup! I've been living here for 6 years now!"

Trusting her word, they continued to enter the building. As soon as they went in the door, Shinobu shouted to no one in particular, "Minna-san! Tadaimasu!"

Only a few seconds after she had said this, an older women with light brown hair entered the room, greeted Shinobu with a wave. However, she then stopped, ran over to Sazuke, and grabbed him by the throat, shaking him violently.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN KEITAROU? I DIDN'T HIT YOU THAT FAR!" she shouted angrily. He was about to pull his tantos when Shinobu shouted,

"NARU! That's not Keitarou… calm down…"

She stopped and looked at Sazuke before putting him down. "Huh? Oh, sorry… Wait, who is this guy?" Naru questioned, "and what's he doing he-"

Another male voice, who Sazuke guessed was probably this Keitarou guy they were talking about, could be heard as the door behind them closed, "I'm home everyone!", and the aforementioned scene repeated itself, with the slight difference of personnel the second time around.

"AGHHH! IM SORRY! I HAD TO DO A FE-, eh?" He stopped as Naru stopped shaking him, "Who's this?"

"Oh, yah sorry." Said Shinobu, before she began the introductions, "This is Sazuke Minashiro. He helped me out earlier and I found out he was looking for a place to stay. So I offered for him to stay here." She said. "Sazuke, this is Naru Urashima," she pointed to the girl with brown hair, who shot an angry glare at him before he looked back to Shinobu, "And this is the owner of the dorm, Keitarou Urashima!" Sazuke shook hands with the older man, who then rubbed his chin and said,

"Hmmm, I don't see anything wrong with Minashiro-san staying here." said Keitarou, "but let's get everyone into the kitchen so we can get a census."

"A census?" asked Sazuke, he was just a bit confused at this point. 'Dorm? Census? How do all these people know about this place?', "aren't you the owner?"

"Ummmm yah, I am, but the thing is, this is kind of an all-girls dorm, so we'll need a majority vote for you to be able to have permission to stay here."

'Ah, that explains it.' he thought. 'Ho boy, just what I wanted to hear…' thought Sazuke as they entered the kitchen. 'A group of girls living out in the middle of nowhere get to decide my fate for the day… how nice…'

They all sat down and Keitarou pulled a loudspeaker out from under the table before shouting in the direction of the stairs, "EVERYONE! COME DOWN TO THE KITCHEN! WE HAVE A GUEST!"

Sazuke looked down at the table and got a bit depressed when he heard footsteps starting to come down the stairs…

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Ok, done with that first chapter. Once again, please leave me any criticism or comments you have, (looks around) including flames if you must! (crosses fingers). I'll fix up chapter two in the next few days.


	2. The First Night

Hello again everyone! Sorry it took me so long to do this one, I've been really busy with school as of late. Hard to get motivated after doing so much homework. But here it is! Chapter II! Read and review if you can!

Disclaimer: If I owned Love Hina, why would I be writing a fan fiction? All characters and places belong to Ken Akamatsu. Except for Sazuke, take him and I'll slash your tires…

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_**Five years before the happenings of "The Path Is Lain":**_

_Sazuke looked up at the building he had seen so many times before when he had come with his father, but had never once been inside. He thought about the changes that had happened over the last couple of weeks. After his father had come out of the hospital, he had become increasing dependent on the young boy. Every day it seemed he would rely on his for a new need, and today's new task was picking up his packages in this downtown establishment. He cleared his throat and walked in. What he saw when he entered shocked him beyond anything he had even seen, even from his father. There were people all over the place, doing things that were against what he could imagine covered the entire nation's law book. He was grabbed tightly by the shoulder, and immediately turned around, to find himself looking up at an extremely large and frightening man._

"_Hey kid, we can't let ya in here, sorry, but you'll have to leave now." The man said._

_Sazuke shuddered at the thought of what may happen should he not return with what his father required of him, so he said back, "Excuse me sir, but I'm Kabuki Minashiro's son, and he just wanted me to come pick up whatever it was he came here to get every week. Could I get it to him?"_

"_Kabuki's kid eh? Your father's one of our best consumers, we wouldn't want to break such a long relationship. Did he give you the money for it?"_

"_Yes sir, it's right here." Sazuke took the small bundle out of his pocket and handed it to the man._

"_Alright then, I can see that ol' Kabu's still reelin' in the cash." The large man said. "Here ya go kid, make sure you get this to your father safely, alright?"_

"_Can do." Sazuke replied, then turned to walk out the door._

"_Hey kid," The man said as Sazuke was leaving, "You gonna be doin' this regularly?"_

_Sazuke nodded, and the man continued, "Alright, I'll make sure that the other bouncers don't give ya any trouble when ya come in." _

_10 Minutes after leaving the bar, Sazuke's curiosity did him in. He just had to know what his father had been coming here for over the last 7 years, why he acted like he needed it so badly, and why it cost so much, that was a really heavy package of En. He unsheathed his pocket knife, made a small slit in the bag, put his finger in, and took some out. He looked at the soft white powder that was now on his fingers, and knew that his suspicions had been confirmed…

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_

**The Light After Dawn; Chapter 2. The First Night.**

"EVERYONE! COME DOWN TO THE KITCHEN! WE HAVE A GUEST!" Keitarou shouted through the loudspeaker he had taken from under the table. Sazuke looked down at the table and got a bit depressed when he heard footsteps starting to come down the stairs… Then he heard the first voice.

"Ara ara… we have company?" Said a voice from the stairwell, followed by the sounds of someone slipping and tumbling down the stairs. Sazuke jumped up frightened only to be nodded off by Keitarou and the others, and sat back down. An older brown haired woman entered the room and sat down in the chair next to Naru while Shinobu said, "Really Mutsumi-san, you must be more careful coming down those stairs…"

"I know Shinobu-chan! I kno-, ara?" Mutsumi paused while she looked at Sazuke, "Who's this?"

"Oh yah," Keitarou said, "Mutsumi, this is Sazuke Minashiro, Sazuke, this is Mutsumi Otohime." He said pointing each other out. She had seemed perplexed my him and asked Sazuke immediately after Keitarou's introductions,

"Were you at Mitsune Konno's café today by chance? I could have sworn I saw you coming out of there."

Sazuke nodded before replying, "Yah, that was probably me, I stopped by to get some dinner."

'Wow, this is a pretty tightly knit community here in Hinata, everyone here knows each other…' He thought.

"Ah, that's what I thought." Mutsumi said before turning her attention and beginning to converse with Naru. Not soon after these introductions had been made, another voice came from the chair on Sazuke's blind side.

"And whom might you be?"

Sazuke almost jumped through the ceiling then turned around to see a tall black haired girl wearing some kind of martial arts outfit sipping tea in the chair next to him.

"Oh Motoko-chan, we didn't even hear you come in with all of this commotion, how are you today?" Keitarou asked.

"I'm quite fine Urashima, thank you." She replied, "But my question remains unanswered, who is this?" She pointed at Sazuke and then took another quick sip of her tea.

"Ah yes, this is Sazuke, he's looking for a place to stay, and Shinobu-chan over here offered him one here. I didn't see anything wrong with it, so I decided to check what you guys thought of it." Keitarou answered. "So if its alright, lets see what you guys think about it." He then took out a small piece of paper and a pen and got ready to write something down.

"Ummmm, shouldn't we wait for Kaolla?" Shinobu pleaded, "She's not down here yet."

"Yah, we should" Responded Keitarou, "Where is she anyways?" He immediately regretted asking that when a loud "HEY!" resonated throughout the room followed by a swift kick to the head as Suu jumped out of a hole in the wall into her seat (via Keitarou's head mind you).

"ARE YOU EVER GONNA STOP DOING THAT SUU-CHAN?" Keitarou shouted.

"Nah, chances are no." Kaolla said before laughing and talking to Shinobu. Sazuke just sat there and tried to figure out what had just happened before being snapped back to attention by Keitarou saying, "Well, now that everyone's here, lets get to the vote. Who here thinks Sazuke can stay here at the Hinata Sou?"

Shinobu was about to speak but was interrupted by Kaolla who asked, "Who's Sazuke?" She then followed Shinobu's pointing finger to where Sazuke was sitting, and to the momentary shock of all the tenants, blushed slightly and went silent.

"Anyway, I say he can stay!" Shinobu said. Motoko amazingly was the next to speak up saying, "I don't really care, I'm going to be at the University most of the time anyways."

The group next looked at Naru who then looked at Keitarou and said, "Well, you didn't turn out that bad, so I don't see why we can't give him a shot here."

After Naru's answer, everyone turned to Kaolla, who was looking down at the table twiddling her thumbs. She looked up at Sazuke and again blushed slightly before saying, "Yah he can stay." and looking down quickly again.

Sazuke felt like a very fat guy had just gotten up from sitting in him. The pressure was gone, he had a place to stay for a while and didn't have to keep traveling. The group talked a while longer with each other before Kaolla said, "Well, its getting late, I'm gonna call it a night. See all of you tomorrow." She then got up from her chair in an almost peaceful like manner and left the room… up the stairs no less! The entire group just sat there speechless, staring at the staircase they had just seen their friend go up, before Sazuke interjected by asking, "What's wrong?"

The group just continued to stare before Motoko snapped back into reality and replied, "She's not normally like this. She is almost always hyper, and is impossible to detain. It's very strange that she'd be acting like this, ever."

The rest of the tenants all nodded, before leaving the room one by one after saying their goodbyes for the night. Keitarou stayed behind and walked up to Sazuke saying, "Well, now that everyone's gone, time to show you where you'll be staying. Be kind of odd for you to be staying here without a room." Sazuke nodded and proceeded to follow him out of the room, up the stairs, to a place he could call home, hopefully for the foreseeable future.

Keitarou and Sazuke had been walking through the halls of the enormous inn for about 5 minutes talking about life about the Hinata Sou. Keitarou told him about the bathing rooms, mealtimes, rent price, the division of chores, amongst other things.

"It sounds like it's pretty peaceful around here!" Sazuke said.

Keitarou stumbled but managed not to face fault after that comment before laughing and responding, "I'll leave that to you to find out, you'll probably find this place a lot different than where you used to live!"

Sazuke paused at the mentioning of his previous "home". Keitarou noticed his sudden lack of emotion and asked, "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, I'd just rather not get into it right now." Sazuke replied, "I'm too tired."

Keitarou didn't buy this excuse, but avoided the subject anyway, and remained silent until they reached their destination. "Here we are, Room 205. This is where you'll be staying Minashiro-san!"

"Ah thank you Urashima-san! I'll just unpack my stuff and head to bed then." Sazuke said.

"Alright, I'll leave you alone to do that, good night."

And with that, Keitarou left the room, and Sazuke just slumped down to the floor, exhausted. This had by far been the longest and toughest day of his life, and it was apparently taking a toll on his fatigue. He thought about the happenings of the last couple of hours, and realized how lucky he was to be able to find somewhere like this to stay. How fortunate he was to have found people who were so kind, to let him stay with them like this. Then he remembered before these events. He remembered the bar, he remembered his father, he remembered. Sazuke just tried to forget about it, 'No need to worry about the past… I have a new place to call home for now, away from all of that. Its time to move on.' He stood back up, sighed, and then started to unpack his stuff. It didn't take him long, he had few possessions. He looked amongst what he had just taken out of his bag, the few things he felt meant something to him in his old "home". Before him was some money, a picture of him and his mother, his clothes, and his two black tantos. He didn't really know why he brought his tantos with him at first, Sazuke thought he had wanted to forget everything about that part of his life.

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_Sazuke strolled down the street, and walked into the bar he had become so accustomed to traveling to. It had been a long couple of months, knowing about his father's habit, but having to keep it inside, afraid of what may happen should it get out. He started to make his way towards the stairs, but was grabbed and pulled around. When around, he saw some guy, obviously drunk, looking at him rather angrily. "Where do you think you're goin punk?"_

_Sazuke was scared out of his mind, he had never come into a confrontation like this before, "Uhhh, I c-come here every week, s-s-sir…I'm just getting someth-hing for my da-"_

"_YOU DON'T GET ANY SPECIAL PRIVILEDGES KID! NO ONE CAN GO UP THERE! ALRIGHT?" After shouting this, the man pulled back his fist, and started to come at him with a punch. Sazuke felt the searing pain on his face as he flew back into the wall. He looked with terror as the man started to walk towards him again, seemingly angrier by the step. When he was about a meter away, he was swept away by one of the bouncers Sazuke had met over the last few months. He helped Sazuke up, and said to him, "You alright kid? Sorry about that, we were in a shift change."  
Sazuke just nodded and said back, "Yah, I'll be fine, thanks…"_

_The bouncer smirked, and handed him the usual package, taking the money back in return, but as Sazuke started to leave, the bouncer shouted to him, "Hey kid, wait a sec."_

_Sazuke turned around, and the bouncer gave him another package, this one made of some kind of leather. He looked up confused at the bouncer, who said, "This ones for you, to make sure something like what happened with that moron doesn't happen again."_

_Sazuke nodded again, thanked him, and then left the bar. After turning a street corner, he went into an alley and opened the package. His eyes went wide as he saw two finely furnished black tantos lying side by side, still in their sheathes.

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_

Sazuke shook his head after this little flashback, and went back to fixing up his new room. He sat down next to a table, and was about to get up again to lay out the futon, when he heard a rapping on his door. "Yes? Who is it?" he asked.

Silence.  
"Hello? Anyone there?" he asked again.

"It's Kaolla, Kaolla Suu…" he heard from the other side.

"Oh, come on in"

The door opened, and a very nervous looking Kaolla came walking in and sat down at the other side of the table. They both sat there for about five minutes before Sazuke finally asked, "Umm, what can I do for you Kaolla-san?"

She looked up quickly and said, "You don't have to call me that!"

"What?" Sazuke asked. That was the fasted he had ever heard anyone say anything, and he didn't understand a word.

"You don't have to call me Kaolla." She repeated, a little slower this time.

Having actually understood this time, Sazuke smiled a bit and replied, "Alright then Kaolla, what can I do for you?"

Kaolla paused at this, almost as If she didn't really know why she came in, but then asked in a more calm way than she had spoken earlier, "I was just wondering If you like it here, and if you think you're gonna like living here."

What? Did he like it here? Of course he did. This was the first time anyone had really treated him with real kindness for a while now. He finally had a place where he could feel at home. There was no doubt he would like living here. But he had to try to hide his past, so he just answered back casually, "It's a great place! I'm sure I'm going to love living here with all of you! I've only been here for one night though, so we'll see what happens. But you all seem like nice people, so it should be fine."

At this last statement, Kaolla began to blush slightly again, before saying even quicker than before, "Wellthatsallineededtoknowthankyouverymuchandgoodnight!" Before dashing out of the room faster than a hobo chasing a ham sandwich.

After momentarily gathering what had just happened, Sazuke got up and went out the door after her. Right as he got out, he ran into someone and fell backwards onto the ground. When he looked up, he saw a slightly annoyed Naru looking back down at him.

"What happened to Kaolla? Why was she running off like that?" She asked him impatiently.

"That's what I was trying to figure out when I ran into you!" He replied truthfully.

He could see she didn't believe him, and was getting impatient… and then she snapped. "YOU PERVERT!" Naru shouted as she smacked him right through the ceiling.

A projectile could be seen flying over the streets of Hinata, As the fates put wagers on where it would land.

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Well, that's that. Chapter III shouldn't take nearly as long. Just started a new semester, and the classes are easy. Please review! I need to know how I'm doing, it's still my first one here! 


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